Developing GUI

[LukeR]

I have a project where I need to display custom text, cursors, and do scrolling etc on a machine running Debian Linux. I have use gcc before and do C programming all the time, I just haven't had to create a program that needs to display stuff on Linux before. What is the standard tool to develop apps like this for Linux? I'm just looking for anything to help get me started.

[Juan Pablo]

Do you mean a graphical toolkit? If so you can get something standard such as GTK or Qt,
GTK is C native and Qt has bindings for C. I suggest you use something like GLADE to design the GUI

[LukeR]

This application is going to be a full-screen application (a black screen) and I will receive commands over the com port telling me what to display on the screen. In some cases I will scroll text, other cases I would draw lines, or draw custom characters.

If I were to do this in Windows I would create and Windows Application using Visual Studio and using the windows draw routines to draw lines, etc. I would probably use CreateFont to create the different fonts I need for the characters and then display them using TextOut possibly. I am just looking for something that is the equivalent on Linux. I don't need to create buttons or moveable windows or anything like that. My app will be the only app on the system.

[Cabhan]

This is done through a GUI toolkit. Juan Pablo named the most popular ones (Gtk and Qt). There are programs that are similar to Visual Studio (GLADE for Gtk and Qt Designer for Qt) that will help you design your GUI. Both of these toolkits can do the same things, but they do differ in appearance and specifics of coding. What you named is done through a GUI toolkit, even if you aren't doing buttons, text entries, etc. You just need a fullscreen window to draw on.

If you want it really simple and raw, you could theoretically use the Xlib library to do really low-level graphics work. But it's probably not worth the pain.

You can find tutorials and API references for Gtk and Qt at the following:
GTK+ - The GIMP Toolkit
Online Reference Documentation

Also, most of us here have done some GUI programming, so if you have any specific questions, we can definitely help.

[Lakshmipathi]

Do you mean a graphical toolkit? If so you can get something standard such as GTK or Qt,
GTK is C native and Qt has bindings for C. I suggest you use something like GLADE to design the GUI

Glade will be easy i guess...try this link pdf for quick example of creating GUI in glade
Introduction to GUI building with Glade